You may have heard of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Well, how about US Prime Minister Mike Johnson?
These are the political circumstances we are facing now House Speaker Mike Johnson,r-la. After all, he runs a “coalition government” in the Congress.
We hear all the time about so-called “coalition governments” in parliaments abroad.
A coalition government comes into existence when no party wins a clear majority. Thus, different factions come together to form a “coalition” and appoint a prime minister.
Coalition governments are common in Japan. In the United Kingdom, former Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. This ended a long tenure of the Labor Party in Britain. It was the first coalition government in Great Britain since the 1970s.
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America does not have a parliamentary system, but Lok Sabha Practically functioning as Parliament. It’s a coalition government of a lot of Democrats and different groups of Republicans – depending on the issue.
In such a situation, Johnson can be considered the Prime Minister of this coalition government. He received Republicans’ votes last October to select him as the successor to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. In pure parliamentary style, the House also held a “vote of no confidence” in McCarthy’s leadership. Johnson faces a similar threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over the coalition he built with Republicans and Democrats to avoid a government shutdown and pass the foreign aid package.
McCarthy’s “government” collapsed when he relied on Democrats to approve bills to raise the debt limit and pass an emergency spending measure last October. But unlike McCarthy, Johnson’s tenure remains intact. However, his hold on power is weak.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson could be ousted from office by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, which would threaten the coalition government Johnson formed with both Republicans and Democrats last year. (Drew Angerer/Chip Somodevilla)
The phenomenon of “coalition government” began to emerge last autumn, soon after Johnson took office. Johnson met Cameron, who now serves as British Foreign Secretary, at the Capitol. But unlike Johnson, Cameron had experienced firsthand the difficulties of a coalition government. The deadlock of “hung parliament” in 2010 meant that Cameron had to form a coalition between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, thereby reining in Labour.
“There are some very tricky issues to deal with,” Cameron whispered to the new president as they gathered at the Capitol last December.
“Yes, there are,” Johnson told Cameron. “We’re working on them as best we can at the moment. I have a three-vote majority and we’ve had some announcements today that it’s even smaller than that.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Cameron said.
But he understood what the newbie president was up to.
“Well, in my first government I didn’t have a majority, so I had to form a coalition,” Cameron said.
“I know you can tell,” Johnson said at the time.
Well, now Johnson’s “governing coalition” has shrunk even further.
When the Speaker spoke to Cameron in December, he was given a three-seat seat. But Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., is resigning. This will reduce the Republican majority to a margin of two seats.
Mike Johnson met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in December last year to discuss the coalition government the House speaker initiated the previous autumn. (Nathan Howard/Antonio Masiello)
The new standing in the House after Gallagher is: 429 members, with 217 Republicans and 212 Democrats. This leaves six vacancies. If New York State Senator Tim Kennedy, a Democrat, prevails over Republican Gary Dixon in a special election in Western New York next week, the margin narrows to a single seat. The apportionment would be as follows: 430 members with 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats. The GOP would only lose one vote on any roll call and would still win without help from the other side.
This is where coalition governance begins. Some of this also goes back to the McCarthy era.
There was a combination of Democrats and Republicans who voted last June to lift the debt ceiling. Seventy-one Republicans voted “no”, so the Democrats picked up the slack. All this was under McCarthy’s supervision.
Johnson was speaker in November. He supported a bill to temporarily fund the government. Ninety-three Republicans voted “no”. But then, the Democrats saved the GOP. Only two Democrats cast “no” votes.
Johnson tried a new, two-step approach to avoid a government shutdown in late winter. He lost 83 Republicans on a bill to fund a portion of the government. Then Johnson lost to 112 Republicans on a bill that would have funded nearly 70% of the government.
A vote soon followed to renew FISA Section 702, a controversial foreign surveillance program. Liberal-minded conservatives and progressives were concerned about this plan. There was vigorous debate over whether warrants were necessary to monitor the communications of Americans. The House passed the bill. But a bipartisan coalition of 88 Republicans and 59 Democrats voted “no.”
The most controversial bill plan of all was to ukraine, The “Three Mikes” handle most foreign policy issues for Republicans: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Tex., House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. , R-ala. , Each pushed for aid to Ukraine, and the House passed the bill. But 112 Republicans voted “no.” That’s more than half of the GOP convention. Democrats tabled key figures on all foreign aid bills. But when it came to Ukraine, the minority party made a difference.
This confirms the “alliance” that currently exists in the House.
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Because no party won an absolute majority of seats, House Speaker Mike Johnson has formed a coalition within the House of Representatives where he essentially acts as prime minister. (Chip Somodevilla)
There was no proof of the concept of a coalition in the House better than last week. That’s when the House needed to approve a “rule” to table foreign aid packages. In the House, the body generally needs to approve a set of ground rules before any legislation can be tabled. The “Rules” determine how much time the House allocates for debate and which amendments – if any – are in order. If the House doesn’t greenlight the rule, the underlying law is stuck.
It is customary for members of the majority party to vote yes on the rule (because it is written by their party) and members of the minority to vote no.
Republicans have also fought to remove “rules” for the legislation from the Rules Committee. But Democrats helped it last week — a rare move — even though that committee’s membership is dominated by Republicans.
In fact, Republicans have blown up a staggering seven “rules” in the House since last summer. In other words, Republicans are voting Against bringing one’s own bill to the House. The House has seen only two rules fail since the 1990s.
So last Friday, the “rules” for the foreign aid plan came up in the House. Johnson’s coalition government came into action again. The House approved the rule by a wide margin: 316–94. But in this case, a surprising 165 Democrats voted yes — while only 151 Republicans voted yes.
A small group of Democrats helped the House approve a rule to lift the debt limit last year. But not since 1964 had anyone seen so many members of the minority party bailing out the majority party on such a rule. That’s when Republicans – then in the minority – helped the House adopt a rule on civil rights legislation.
It’s unclear how long this might last for Johnson.
Greene may still try to remove him from office. It’s doubtful that Georgia Republicans have the votes to do so. Last time, Republicans had to struggle to elect the speaker. Depending on the level of turmoil, whoever wins will need to form a coalition – and actually become “Prime Minister”. Otherwise, the House could consider the possibility of another leader – perhaps “Prime Minister” Hakeem Jeffries, D., N.Y.
